Structural Biology Unit, CIC bioGUNE, CIBERehd, 48160 Derio, Spain.
Virology. 2012 Sep 1;430(2):120-6. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2012.05.001. Epub 2012 May 31.
Hepatitis C virus infects almost 170 million people per year but its assembly pathway, architecture and the structures of its envelope proteins are poorly understood. Using electron tomography of plastic-embedded sections of insect cells, we have visualized the morphogenesis of recombinant Hepatitis C virus-like particles. Our data provide a three-dimensional sketch of viral assembly at the endoplasmic reticulum showing different budding stages and contiguity of buds. This latter phenomenon could play an important role during the assembly of wt-HCV and explain the size-heterogeneity of its particles.
每年有近 1.7 亿人感染丙型肝炎病毒，但人们对其组装途径、结构和包膜蛋白结构了解甚少。我们利用昆虫细胞的塑料包埋切片的电子断层扫描，对重组丙型肝炎病毒样颗粒的形态发生进行了可视化观察。我们的数据提供了内质网病毒组装的三维草图，显示了不同的出芽阶段和芽的连续性。后一种现象可能在 wt-HCV 的组装过程中发挥重要作用，并解释其颗粒大小异质性的原因。
